Klaus Mehnert

Mehnert was born in 1906 in Moscow, Russia. His father was an engineer.{{Cite news |last= |date=1984-01-04 |title=Klaus Mehnert Dead; A Specialist on Russia |language=en-US |work=AP |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/01/04/obituaries/klaus-mehnert-dead-a-specialist-on-russia.html |access-date=2022-07-14 |issn=0362-4331}}

In 1914, at the outbreak of World War I, Mehnert's family left Moscow for Stuttgart, Germany. His father died in Flanders in 1917 as a German soldier. Mehnert attended the University of Tübingen and the University of Munich in Germany, the University of California, Berkeley, in the United States, and finally the University of Berlin, where he received his PhD under Professor Otto Hoetzsch in 1928. Hoetzsch and Mehnert later took part in the short-lived society to study the Soviet command economy, ARPLAN.{{Citation |last=David-Fox |first=Michael |title=Showcasing the Great Experiment : Cultural Diplomacy and Western Visitors to the Soviet Union, 1921-1941 |date=2011-12-22 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199794577.003.0002 |work= |pages= |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199794577.003.0002 |access-date=2022-07-12}} Mehnert was briefly a supporter of Otto Strasser's Black Front.

Over the next ten years, Mehnert traveled frequently, to America, the Soviet Union, Japan, and China. He married Enid Keyes († 1955) in California in 1933. From 1934 to 1936 he served as a Soviet correspondent for a German newspaper. In 1936, he was questioned in the press court in Munich under suspicions of being too sympathetic to the Russians; although cleared by the Gestapo, he was forced out of his job.{{Cite book |last=Chapman |first=J. W. M. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/810277801 |title=Ultranationalism in German-Japanese relations, 1930-45 : from Wenneker to Sasakawa |date=2011 |publisher=Global Oriental |isbn=978-90-04-21278-7 |location=Folkestone, Kent |oclc=810277801}} Subsequently, Mehnert moved to the United States, teaching politics at Berkeley and then at the University of Hawaii at Manoa until 1941.Mehnert, Klaus. "The Face of the Pacific." The XXth Century, vol. VII, no. 2/3, August/September 1944, pp.141-162.

In June 1941, six months prior to America's entry to World War II, he left for Shanghai, China, where he published an English-language journal named XXth Century with help from the Nazi German foreign ministry and funding from Joseph Goebbels' Third Reich Propaganda Ministry.{{Cite book |last=Geerken |first=Horst H. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/923658255 |title=Hitler's Asian Adventure |date=2015 |others=Books on Demand GmbH Norderstedt |isbn=978-3-7386-3013-8 |location=Norderstedt |oclc=923658255}} An influential promoter of anti-Allied reports and commentary in Asia, XXth Century was later described by American intelligence as "one of the slickest bits of propaganda work that has been done anywhere".{{Cite book |last=Wasserstein |first=Bernard |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/953982008 |title=Secret war in Shanghai : treachery, subversion and collaboration in the Second World War |date=2017 |isbn=978-1-78453-764-7 |edition= |location=London |oclc=953982008}} In its four years, Menhert "steered his publication cunningly along a sophisticated path that eschewed overt pro-Axis advocacy", according to the British historian Bernard Wasserstein, with "a wide range of contributors, few of whom were publicly identified with Nazism". The journal was discontinued at the end of the war in 1945, and Mehnert was briefly{{Clarify|date=July 2022}} imprisoned.{{Cite web |title=The XXth Century, Shanghai, 1941-1945: A Guide – University of Hawaii Manoa Library Website |url=https://manoa.hawaii.edu/library/research/collections/russia/russian-northeast-asia-collection/the-xxth-century-shanghai-1941-1945-a-guide/ |access-date=2022-07-03 |language=en-US}}

Mehnert returned to Germany after the war. In 1946, an American tribunal cleared him of having Nazi affiliations.{{Cite book |last=Kotkin |first=Stephen |date=2015-03-04 |title=Rediscovering Russia in Asia: Siberia and the Russian Far East |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781315701257 |doi=10.4324/9781315701257|isbn=9781315701257 |s2cid=134785020 }} He continued to face occasional accusations in the American press of spying and anti-Semitism. The German historian Norbert Frei describes Mehnert as "one of the adaptable 'former ones'" in the postwar leadership of the German newspaper Christ und Welt.{{Cite book |last=Frei |first=Norbert |date=2002-12-31 |title=Adenauer's Germany and the Nazi Past |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.7312/frei11882 |doi=10.7312/frei11882|isbn=9780231118828 }} Mehnert held various positions as journalist, editor, and professor. He became a foreign commentator for South German Radio in 1950. He was a professor of political science at Aachen Institute of Technology. He was the editor of the journal Osteuropa. He was a government advisor on Sino-Russian matters (counseling German chancellors from Konrad Adenauer to Helmut Schmidt). He published several books on political science.Laqueur, Walter. [https://archive.org/details/dreamthatfailedr00laqu_0 The Dream that Failed: Reflections on the Soviet Union.] Oxford University Press, 1996, p. 187. {{ISBN| 978-0195102826}}. In the late 1970s he authored several books on youth movements in Western countries.{{Third-party inline|date=July 2022}}

He died in 1984 at age 77 in Freudenstadt, West Germany.

Since 2005, the "Europainstitut Klaus Mehnert" has offered a student exchange program between his former university RWTH Aachen and the University of Kaliningrad.{{Citation needed|date=July 2022}}

;{{Cleanup list|section|date=July 2022}}in German (some translated)

• Ein deutscher Austauschstudent in Kalifornien ("A German exchange student in California"). Stuttgart, 1930
• Die Jugend in Sowjet-Russland. Berlin, 1932; Youth in Soviet Russia. Transl. by Michael Davidson, Westport, Conn., 1981
• The Russians in Hawaii, 1804–19. Hawaii, 1939
• Der Sowjetmensch. Stuttgart, 1958; The Anatomy of Soviet Man. Transl. by Maurice Rosenbaum, London, 1961
• Peking und Moskau. Stuttgart, 1962; Peking and Moscow. Transl. by Leila Vennewitz, London, 1963
• [https://archive.org/details/chinanachdemstur0000mehn China nach dem Sturm.] Munich, 1971; China Today. Transl. by Cornelia Schaeffer, London, 1972. [https://archive.org/details/sovietmanhisworl0000mehn China Returns.] New York, 1972.

;in English:

• [https://archive.org/details/stalinversusmarx00mehn Stalin Versus Marx: The Stalinist Historical Doctrine.] London: George Allen and Unwin, 1952. 130 p.
• [https://archive.org/details/sovietmanandhisw013723mbp Soviet Man and His World.] New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1958.
• [https://archive.org/details/pekingmoscowmehnert Peking and Moscow.] New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1963. 522 p.
• [https://archive.org/details/chinareturns00mehn China Today.] London: Thames and Hudson, 1972. 322 p. {{ISBN|0500250324}}.
• [https://archive.org/details/sovietmanhisworl0000mehn China Returns.] New York: Dutton, 1972. 322 p. {{ISBN|978-0525080008}}.http://www.popula.com/st/no_279/2549740.htm{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
• [https://archive.org/details/moscownewleft0000mehn Moscow and the New Left.] Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1975. 275 p. {{ISBN|978-0520026520}}.
• [https://archive.org/details/twilightofyoungr0000mehn Twilight of the Young: The Radical Movements of the 1960s and Their Legacy.] New York, 1977. 428 p. {{ISBN|978-0030194764}}.{{cite web |url=http://www.zzbw.uni-hannover.de/HerbstHeus/Heus47_25.htm |title=Higher Education in the United States |accessdate=2008-03-29 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070621061629/http://www.zzbw.uni-hannover.de/HerbstHeus/Heus47_25.htm |archivedate=2007-06-21 }}
• Youth in Soviet Russia. Hyperion Press, 1981. {{ISBN|978-0830500833}}.{{Cite web|url=http://www.bestwebbuys.com/Youth_in_Soviet_Russia-ISBN_9780830500833.html?isrc=b-search|title=Best Web Buys Price Comparison Shopping}}
• [https://archive.org/details/russianstheirfav00mehn The Russians & Their Favorite Books.] Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1983. {{ISBN|978-0817978211}}.

;in German:

• Peking und Moskau. DTV, 1964. 508 p.
• Der deutsche Standort. Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1967. 415 p.{{cite web |url=http://www.antiqbook.de/boox/buchge/BU001786.shtml |title=Der deutsche Standort - KLAUS MEHNERT |accessdate=2008-03-29 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718195840/http://www.antiqbook.de/boox/buchge/BU001786.shtml |archivedate=2011-07-18 }}
• China nach dem Sturm. 1971. Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 340pp, {{ISBN|978-3-421-01593-8}}{{cite web |url=http://www.antiqbook.de/boox/buchge/BU001787.shtml |title=China nach dem Sturm - KLAUS MEHNERT |accessdate=2008-03-29 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718195844/http://www.antiqbook.de/boox/buchge/BU001787.shtml |archivedate=2011-07-18 }}
• Amerikanische und russische Jugend um 1930. 1973. Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 297pp, {{ISBN|978-3-421-01629-4}}
• Moskau und die neue Linke. 1973. 219pp, {{ISBN|978-3-421-01661-4}}
• Jugend im Zeitbruch: Woher-Wohin. 1976. Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 511pp, {{ISBN|978-3-421-01753-6}}
• [https://archive.org/details/kampfummaoserbeg0000mehn Kampf um Maos Erbe: Geschichten machen Geschichte.] Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1977. 319 p. {{ISBN|978-3421018250}}.
• Maos Erben machen's anders. 1979. Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 171pp
• Ein Deutscher in der Welt: Erinnerungen 1906–1981. 1983. Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 447pp, {{ISBN|978-3-421-06055-6}}
• Uber die Russen heute: Was sie lesen, wie sie sind. 1983. Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 352pp, {{ISBN|978-3-421-06163-8}}

;in French:

• La Rebelión De La Juventud. 1978.

;In italian:

• "Cina rossa". 1972. Milano: Bietti, 372pp.

{{reflist}}

• [https://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/handle/10524/31941/simple-search?location=10524%2F31941&query=Volume+1&rpp=100&sort_by=dc.date.issued_dt&order=ASC&etal=0&filter_field_1=author&filter_type_1=equals&filter_value_1=Mehnert%2C+Klaus%2C+1906-1984 Articles by Mehnert] published in XXth Century
• [http://libweb.hawaii.edu/libdept/russian/index.html#background The Russian Collections] of the University of Hawaii, initiated by Mehnert
• [http://www.europastudien-kaliningrad.de/ Europainstitut Klaus Mehnert] (German)

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mehnert, Klaus}}

Category:1906 births

Category:1984 deaths

Category:Writers from Stuttgart

Category:People from Moskovsky Uyezd

Category:German male journalists

Category:German male writers

Category:German Nazi propagandists

Category:Academic staff of RWTH Aachen University

Category:20th-century German journalists

Category:Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the German Empire

Category:Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

Category:Recipients of the Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg